"Ah, another Malfoy," the hat sounded amused. "You are not what you seem, or what your family and peers see, are you? Your heart is double. A Malfoy in name, but your true lineage is hazy, which makes you quite tricky to place. You would do well in...
Professor Lupin never turned up for our Defence Against The Dark Arts class, instead, professor Snape walked in and made his way to the front of the class.
He flicked his wand continuously, causing all the blinds and windows to snap closed. He pulled the projector screen down too.
"Turn to page 394," he directed us, and we all had confused faces.
"Professor?" I raise my hand, and he nods for me to continue. "We aren't supposed to be studying nocturnal beasts for weeks."
"Correct, Miss Malfoy," I had to hide my involuntary frown at that. I wasn't a Malfoy, but no one else knew that. "Now that's been addressed, all of you, please turn to page 394!"
I sit back on my chair and turn to the page. I've already read it so it wasn't new to me.
"Excuse me, sir, but where's professor Lupin?" Harry asked.
"That's not really your concern, is it Mr Potter? Suffice it to say, your professor finds himself incapable of teaching at the present time."
"Werewolves!" Ron exclaimed when Snape flicked his wand at his book as he was turning one page after the next.
"Which of you can tell me the difference between an Animagus and a werewolf?" Snape asked.
My hand went up along with Hermione's.
"No one? How disappointing," Snape overlooked us both and I frowned, I'm in your house!
"Please, sir, an Animagus is a wizard who elects to turn into an animal. A werewolf has no choice. With each full moon when he transforms, he no longer remembers who he is. He'll kill his best friends across his path. Furthermore, the werewolf only responds to the call of its own kind." Hermione explained.
Draco mimicked the call of a werewolf, which was cheap of him, considering how scared he was of the mere thought of them in first year when we discovered our detention would be in the forbidden forest.
"Thank you, Mr Malfoy. That is the second time you have spoken out of turn, Miss Granger. Are you incapable of restraining yourself? Or do you take pride in being an insufferable know-it-all?!" Snape said to her. "Five points from Gryffindor. As an antidote to your ignorance, and on my desk by Monday morning, two rolls of parchment on the werewolf with particular emphasis on recognising them."
All of us groaned.
"Sir, it's Quidditch tomorrow!" Harry spoke up.
"Then I suggest you take extra care Mr Potter, loss of limb will not excuse you!" Snape said, uncaring.
***
The Quidditch game was a mess from the start. The weather, the constant rain and unruly wind made it hard to see anything that was going on.
Unable to watch the game, I decided to leave and came across the faces of four people I really wanted to see.
"We were watching! Seems like a very dangerous game," Rory says.
"It can be, but so can most things," I say. "I play, I'm the seeker for Slytherin house. Slytherin is one of the four houses, and the seeker in a Quidditch game, focuses on catching the golden snitch. If a seeker were to catch the snitch, that means their team scores 150 points and wins the game."
"Wait, you play?!"
"Yes, I was put on the team in first year, and so was my friend Harry. We're the youngest to have been placed on our teams," I state proudly.
***
Hearing that Harry was in the Hospital Wing again, I had to leave them to see if he was okay. His broom was in pieces because it had blown into the whomping willow.
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"The Dementors aren't supposed to come inside the grounds. Dumbledore was furious. As soon as he saved you, he sent them straight off," I hear Hermione saying.
"They came into the grounds!" I shriek. "Harry, I'm so sorry."
"I'm fine, Ally," he smiles at me.
I wasn't so sure he'd still be saying that once he saw the state of his broom.
***
Classes continued after that. Divination was no better and Hermione was told that her heart was as shrivelled as an old maids, so, she wasn't best pleased.
Later that day it was Buckbeak's execution and the trio and I went down to see Hagrid. That's also when we saw Draco and his goons and I motioned for the others to follow me another way, but it was too late.
"Ah! Come to see the show?!" Draco snickered.
"You foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach!" I took out my wand and thrust it at him. He pressed himself against a tall rock and started whimpering, it felt good.
"Ally, it's not worth it," Hermione tried to reason.
Sighing, I lowered my wand and started to walk away, only for Draco to mutter something and I twirled back around. My fist connected with his jaw and he fell back, before scrambling away.
"That felt good," I turn and grin, shaking out my hand. "I've wanted to do that for years!"
"Bloody brilliant that was!" Ron shook his head in awe.
We soon hurried down to Hagrid's hut, where we found he carefully watching Buckbeak who was laid in the pumpkin patch, feeling the breeze through his feathers.
We wanted to stay, and be there for Hagrid, but he wouldn't let us, so we had to race back so we wouldn't get caught. Back on the hill, we stood and watched from afar.
Annoyed and upset by the whole thing, I told the group that I was going to go for a walk, but that's when Scabber's, - Ron's rat who Hagrid had found and Crookshanks had not eaten, bit his finger. Ron dropped him.
"Scabbers!" He started to chases after his rat.
We all ran after him and ended up near the whomping willow, but that wasn't all we needed to be worried about. Standing behind us was the Grim.
The dog bared its canines, hackles raised as it suddenly ran at us. We also screamed as it clamped down on Ron's ankle, as he was still on the ground holding Scabbers.
"Stay back!" I shout desperately as my family ran up to us, the whomping willow was starting to attack us after the dog pulled Ron under it.
I could tell they all wanted to do something, but they didn't know what they were dealing with. I ducked as a branch swung round, hoping to knock me to the ground. Hermione jumped over it.
"Can you use your magic?" She screamed at me.
"No," I say. "But we need to go after Ron."
Harry was hit to the side by a branch, and Hermione, she ducked before jumping onto one. I did the same and I couldn't see a thing as it whipped us about, hair covering my face.
Hermione reached down as grasped at Harry's shirt, he was pulled up too and she let go and he slipped down the hole into the tree. I let myself go soon after and plummeted through the tree. I fell on top of Harry, and tried to stand, but Hermione came through and fell on top of me.
"Any idea where this leads?" Harry asks.
"Yes, but I hope I'm wrong," I mutter.
I wasn't wrong as we followed the tunnel and ended up in the Shrieking Shack.
